Kamayoq of Coca

Several days ago, I had helped a young Chaski gather coca leaves that had fallen from her basket onto the road. Today, standing near a settlement, I watched another woman sorting leaves into a broad basket and found myself wondering whether some of those same leaves had somehow made their way here.

She worked with the patience of someone who had done this many times. Leaves passed through her hands one after another. She inspected them, arranged them, and shifted the contents of the basket until everything sat exactly where she wanted it. A chuspa beside her was already filled.

I asked what she was doing, and this time I understood enough of the answer to follow the movement of her hands. The leaves had been gathered. They had been carried. They had been dried and handled carefully. Now they were being made ready to continue.

Suddenly I could see the whole chain. The plant growing from the earth. Hands harvesting it. A Chaski carrying the leaves along the road. Someone receiving them here, knowing how to sort and preserve what had arrived. Eventually other hands would take them again.

I had thought of abundance as having plenty. Watching her work, I began to understand that abundance also requires someone who knows what to do with what has been given.